A record-breaking number of 83 candidates was officially narrowed down to nine winners when the Judicial Court certified the 2015 Fall student government elections Sunday.
The Fall 2015 elections closed Friday after a total of 4,075 votes were cast. The election solidified the positions of three off-campus senate seats, two on-campus senate seats, two freshman class senate seats, one Liberal Arts Caucus senate seat and freshman class president.
Kallie Fuchs, SGA election commissioner and nutrition science senior, said this fall election cycle saw an increase in both candidate filings and voter turnout from the previous fall elections.
“Overall the general flow of the election was extremely positive this year,” Fuchs said. “We had a record-breaking number of candidates file with a total of 83 candidates that filed for elections.”
Amy Sharp, business honors freshman, was declared the winner of the Freshman Class President election after 12 rounds of voting and 2,016 ballots cast.
“I’m so overwhelmed and excited and kind of in shock,” Sharp said after the announcement. “There were so many qualified candidates.”
Sharp said although her position is technically one that only deals with traditions, she intends to use the title as a platform to speak out for the concerns of her class. She said responses she received to a mass email she sent out soliciting freshman students’ issues and concerns helped shape her campaign.
“So I’ve taken all these responses, passions and advice and molded them into something that I can go and talk to the SGA about and really try and make some ideas on campus a reality,” Sharp said. “The big three are definitely more bike racks, longer hours in the dining halls and more efficiency in the dining halls.”
Annie Flowers and Molly Gilliland, both business freshmen, beat out 17 other candidates for the freshman senate spots. Gilliland said her decision to join SGA started at Fish Camp.
“At Fish Camp I was really drawn to the Student Government Association,” Gilliland said. “I just felt like I wanted to make a larger impact on my class of 2019 as a whole.”
Gilliland said now that she is a part of Student Senate one thing she would like to help work on is addressing the seal change.
“I would like to be a part of that — to address the seal change,” Gilliland said. “I am a third generation Aggie myself, so I’m interested to see where that goes and what I can do to be an input on that situation.”
Flowers said she knew coming into A&M she wanted to be in SGA.
“I knew that coming into A&M I wanted to get involved with SGA as soon as possible, and I didn’t know if that was going to be in support of another candidate or if it was going to be me as well with my co-candidate,” Flowers said.
Kilian Bresnahan, accounting sophomore, lost his race for an off-campus senate spot.
“Honestly the three candidates that did win — I know they’re going to do a good job,” Bresnahan said. “Because everyone here at A&M does have a sense of pride that they go to school here, and they will continue to make this school a better place.”
Bresnahan said he still plans on pursuing an active role in representing his class and Texas A&M, but isn’t quite sure how he’ll go about it as of yet.
“I’ve always wanted to represent my class, or just in general Texas A&M,” Bresnahan said. “I love doing that and I see myself in the future doing that, just at this moment in time I don’t see where I’m going to fit into that role anywhere else. But I’m still going to consider any option open.”
